The US could quickly find a path to peace in Syria, but instead it’s prolonging a bloody civil war that is devastating the Syrian people in order to overthrow Assad’s regime, Eugene Puryear, foreign affairs analyst from the ANSWER coalition told RT.

Washington closed the Syrian embassy and two of its consulates
on Tuesday, and has told all Syrian diplomats that they must
leave the country. Last week Damascus decided to call back its
mission.

RT:Do you have any idea why the move comes
now and not earlier?

Eugene Puryear: It’s a result of the fact that
the war effort, the US attempting to foment civil war and regime
change in Syria, has not been going in their favor and that’s
what we are seeing. The Syrian government has gained more
control, and reconciliation efforts started gaining traction. So
this offers an opportunity for the US government to get back in
the media; these embassies were only low level consulates and it
gave them a chance to justify their failed strategy with the
Assad regime in a such way that they will be able to at least
gain the support of the American people for continuing to pour in
money to keep this civil war going to attempt to overthrow the
Assad regime.

RT:Washington has closed the embassy and
expelled Syrian diplomats, but it claims that doesn't mean the
suspension of diplomatic relations. Isn't there a
contradiction?

EP: I think it’s an extreme contradiction. If
you can't have any diplomats inside of the country, if your
counselor offices around the nation are not allowed to offer the
basic consular services, which is one of the most important
things that diplomatic officials in other countries do, it’s a
de-facto ending of diplomatic relations. But their attempt to not
call it that is perhaps to keep the door open for future peace
talks and the things of that nature. But I think quite certainly
this is in essence an ending or breaking of diplomatic relations,
even if they are not calling it that.

RT:The US once again has put the blame for
violence on Assad, stating that was one of the reasons behind the
move to close embassies - but if that's the case, why is
Washington fine with supporting the rebels, given that there have
been many confirmed reports of war crimes carried out by
them?

EP: It’s completely hypocritical of the US to
put the onus for the violence on the Syrian government. I mean
quite certainly the US and its proxies and the Gulf states and
the EU, having poured in so many weapons, so much money,
logistical, military - all these different efforts - to keep the
civil war going , it’s their efforts that have turned this into a
bloody stalemate that in fact has empowered forces that are
aligned with Al-Qaeda. So quite certainly the US is funding and
supporting, in either a direct or indirect way, very violent
forces that have had a significant role in this war and have
really devastated the nation of Syria. I think it’s absolutely
unbelievable and really hypocritical for the US to be going ahead
and claiming that all the violence is to blame on the Assad
regime. Certainly the rebels have committed their share of war
crimes and atrocities and the US is complicit and responsible for
that.

RT:The Geneva conference has ended with
little results. Does that mean that this conflict may only be
ended by military victory?

EP: If the US continues its own orientation, I
think that is certainly the case. We know that the Assad regime
is pursuing aggressively its own reconciliation attempts and its
own attempts to build peace from the ground up. But quite
certainly the US, the EU and others have set up red lines in
their diplomatic negotiations that make it almost impossible for
the Assad regime to agree, since it would really result in their
own liquidation in order for there to be a peaceful agreement on
terms that the US will allow.

And certainly the Western powers have indicated that they will
continue to fund the rebels until the Assad government meets
their terms… and so the war continues to grind on. The US are
setting up the situation so that diplomacy cannot work in the
hopes that by drawing out this desperate bloody civil war
devastating the Syrian people they can eventually degrade the
Assad regime enough for it to fall. They are willing to have tens
of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people die, suffer, and
starve in pursuit of their goal, which is overthrowing Bashar
Assad and his government.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.